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Saturday, June 7, 2014

Environmental 'one-two punch' imperils Amazonian forests

Date:

June 4, 2014 -SCIENCE DAILY

Source:

James Cook University

Summary:

One of the world's longest-running ecological studies has revealed that Amazonian forests are being altered by multiple environmental threats -- creating even greater perils for the world's largest rainforest. But the biggest surprise is that nearby undisturbed forests, which were also being carefully studied, changed as well.

One of the world's longest-running ecological studies has revealed that Amazonian forests are being altered by multiple environmental threats -- creating even greater perils for the world's largest rainforest.

"It's like a boxer getting hit by a flurry of punches," says lead author William Laurance of James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.

For the past 35 years, a team of Brazilian and international researchers has studied how diverse communities of trees and vines respond when the Amazonian rainforest is fragmented by cattle ranching.

The fragmented forests, they found, change rapidly. "Lots of trees have died while vines, which favor disturbed forests, proliferate rapidly," said Jose Luis Camargo of Brazil's National Institute for Amazonian Research.

But the biggest surprise is that nearby undisturbed forests, which were also being carefully studied, changed as well. Trees there grew and died faster, and the vines also multiplied.

"These changes might be driven by increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," said Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University in Virginia, USA, who initiated the long-term study. "Plants use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and when it increases, the forest evidently becomes more unstable and dynamic, as long as the soils have enough nutrients."

The investigators say a key implication is that many forests are being affected not only by land-use changes such as habitat fragmentation, but also by global-scale changes such as rising carbon dioxide and climate change. In some cases different drivers reinforce one another, increasing their impacts on forests.

"A big implication is that it's going to be harder to predict future changes to ecosystems if they're being affected by several environmental drivers," said Lovejoy.

The researchers expect such changes to increase in the future.

"Humans continue to dump billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, and it's evidently affecting even the remotest forests on Earth," said Laurance.

UN report - Livestock's Long Shadow

MEAT EATING IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING-Over 70% of Amazon rainforest is cut down for meat production.-Livestock produces MORE GREENHOUSE GASES than all WORLDWIDE TRANSPORTATION COMBINED.

"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."-Dr. Henning Steinfeld, Chief of Livestock Information and Policy Branch, FAO of United Nations

Scientist says:

" WHY must we be reticent about recommending a diet which we know is safe and healthy? We, as scientists, can no longer take the atttitude that the public cannot benefit from information they are not ready for. I personally have great faith in the public. We must tell them that a diet of roots, stems, seeds, flowers, fruits and leaves is the healthiest diet and the only diet we can promote, endorse, and recommend." -Colin Campbell, PhD(Director of the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment)